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Feb. 2nd, 2006 02:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tammaiyaIt sucks being hungry when you're diabetic, conscious of the fact you're only JUST within the upper limit of your healthy weight range and have eaten all your meals and snacks for the day. ESPECIALLY since I'm never hungry when I actually have to eat. Wah.
Anyway! Yesterday I went over to Mari and Sis's and saw them for the first time in 2 months. <333 Sis had her first day of year 11 today, so I hope that went okay. Um, as filled with boring assemblies as it probably was. Today, I'm... in kind of a grumpy mood. Well, not so much as I was earlier, although the hunger thing is a bother. I'm just grumpy about the continual presence of tradesmen (I have to get up for them again tomorrow, and mum told me they would be finished by Christmas and that I'd still have 2 months of my holidays free of them. There's only 2 weeks of my holiday left, and they really are very disruptive), and the continual arguments with my mother (I will readily admit to part of the fault here, but I need a lot of solitude and I just haven't been getting that recently), and the being forced against my will to go to a dietitian on Friday (I don't want to go, I don't NEED to go, and I was at no point consulted about the timing for this, and I don't want to catch buses and waste 3 hours of my day either), and my dog bit me because my mother was yelling at me (she gets upset when people yell and generally tries to bite... me) and my dog's operation is tomorrow.
And I'm sure I sound like a whiny brat, for which I apologise. Also that sentence was DISGUSTINGLY long and my inner grammar nazi cringes at it. But I felt the need to rant. ^^;
I have figured out where my writing mojo has gone; Fahye did not steal it. It has been channelled into these summaries, which have by this point exceeded 20000 words. *looks shifty* I just don't know how to be brief, clearly. I suspect other people probably mind this mojo-transmutation than I do, though, as I don't feel too bad about not writing anything much after Christmas. Which is not to say that I am not a little exasperated with myself for not working on CCS!X more and at least finishing the Hokuto chapter, but I have tunnel vision. When I get obsessed with one thing, I can't focus on anything BUT that. (Example: anyone unfortunate enough to catch me during me crazy House phase should know how scary my levels of obsession can reach. Compare that to the fact that I am now at least 2 episodes behind because my shifting obsessions-- first back to FF7, and then to KH-- leave no room for me to want to watch them. It's not that I don't still love House, I just can't concentrate on it.)
Speaking of the above, more on the summaries. Also I got fed up of not understanding some functions properly about halfway through this and went to find scans of the manual, which was completely and utterly useless and didn't tell me anything I didn't know. I realise I should have expected this, but hey, hope springs eternal and I still don't know how to level my drives properly. *g*
Wherein I Obsessively Transcribe The (Translated) Conversation I Had With Sephiroth. Plus, The Wrong Just Got Wronger
We head off to see what's going down in Hollow Bastion. Donald says that Ou-sama is by himself out there and we have to hurry, which I attempt to firmly ignore. Cut to ARMIES of Heartless and Nobodies, and then to Maleficent and Pete. The black are Heartless, the white are Nobodies. Pete freaks out and makes a break for it, and then Sora turns up and Maleficent sics her hordes of minions on him before disappearing. You beat on the multidinous enemy, and when it's dispatched, Yuna-tachi reappear. They have a long whispered conversation until Sora tells them if they're going to choose sides they should help Leon and asks them who they are. Yuna says their names aren't important, they're just obsessed with treasure, and they want to know if Leon has any. Donald tells them Leon has AWESOME treasure and they're like "WHOO!" and disappear. Goofy and Sora are like, "dude, what treasure?" and Donald cackles evilly and runs off. There are more Nobodies, which you don't actually have to fight because you whack them off one-hit KO in a cutscene and continue running, until...
"O. M. F. G." I say out loud.
SEPHIROTH.
How is it that you can recognise HIM from Cloud's description and can't recognise Cloud from Tifa's? Must be the mention of big sword. Or perhaps the hair colour. Well, anyway. Goofy calls Sephiroth "the embodiment of Cloud's darkness" which is presumably what Cloud called him in that conversation I forgot parts of.
I then proceed to spend the next conversation SWOONING AT HIS VOICE OH GOD and pausing obsessively to transcribe everything he says because he's SEPHIROTH.
Sephiroth: I suppose Cloud told you that. So, it seems like you understand.
Sora: What do you intend to do to Cloud?!
(Me: *SNIGGER*)
Sephiroth: Saa. He's the one who's seeking the darkness.
(So pretty. Oh god. Voice. And reading into what he said... *SNERK* He's so TOTALLY self-assured that Cloud will chase after him.)
Sora: He said it was to put an end to it!
(Yeah, suuuuuuuure. That's what he SAID.)
Sephiroth: I see. So that means he wants to see me? *turns and starts walking away* In that case, I'll do as he wishes.
(fjkas;djfkl;sa *goo*
Also, haha, Sephiroth is totally Wesley. "As you wish"!)
Sephiroth: It seems he wants to erase the dimly remaining light.
And then Sephiroth flies up into a gate of darkness and I am left going "omg. omg." a lot. XD
Goofy says that Sephiroth is a little like Cloud, and that we need to tell Cloud we saw Sephiroth, but for now we have to help everyone. So we run back off in the direction of the town in time to see Leon bash a Heartless before it gets Aerith. He says that Mickey is at the bailey area and he'll leave it to you. You get accosted by a large bunch of Heartless/Nobodies. One of the kinds of Nobodies is really annoying, because it can grab you and swing you around which is painful and once you're grabbed it's hard to break the cycle of them grabbing you AGAIN after they throw you in the air. We run out to the bailey area where there's a lot of destruction and walls knocked over, and my disc freezes again. SIGH. So I reset, fight that battle again, and skip the event. I don't think I missed anything this time, at least.
It opens up a new area. You enter that, and Mickey is there; he tells Sora to go rescue Riku and Kairi, but Sora is all "But I made a promise to Leon!" Mickey points out there's heaps of people here to fight so it'll be okay, and tells Goofy and Donald to take Sora to rescue the other two if necessary. They're essentially all like "Of course, Ou-sama!" and Sora feels very betrayed about this, but then they start winking at him and Sora catches on (Mickey's back is turned). Sora agrees with them, and says "Let's go!"... then they run past Mickey and jump down to the next level, yelling back "SORRY, OU-SAMA! PLEASE FORGIVE US!" before they amscray.
I love Mickey's expression. It's just so fondly exasperated. Like, "SIGH." *giggle*
Anyway, in the next screen, guess who returns? Demix! Yey! Next to Axel he's my favourite of the XIII. *hearts madly* Um, in case you've forgotten, he's the one from Olympus. With the sitar. Who was all "Roxas come baaaaaaaaaaaaack!" (It seems that the romanisation is going to be Roxas, and so I'm giving in to the inevitable, as you may have noticed.) So now he's all like "Yipe!" and looks like he's going to make a break for it. Sora is like, hey, you're one of the XIII, you were the one in Hercules' world, what are you doing here? Donald says that the XIII are pathetic and Dexim is very affronted, complaining that you don't judge someone you don't know. Then he spoils it by turning around and muttering that if he faces away, like this...
Sora: ... What is up with this guy?
Then you're all like dude, that's right, you XIII are Nobodies! You have no heart! Which also offends Dexim-- "Hey, that's not it at all!" Donald tells him you're going to shut him up, basically, and then suddenly Dexim goes from sort of ineffectual cute complaining to a really serious, bitter voice (think Kantarou near the end of Tactics when Haruka is persona non gratis and Reiko is trying to offer sympathy), pointing at Sora:
(... Hm, how should I translate this. Shizukani is be quiet, urusai is generally shut up, and damare is a lot ruder because of the imperative form. And rough speech is on par with swearing in Japanese. Sooooo...)
"Shut the fuck up, betrayer!"
Ooer.
Then you get into a really nasty fight. It's nasty because of the time limits-- you have to destroy I think 50? water creatures in 40 seconds, then you have to bash Demix. First two times I didn't even clear stage one. Third time I was like "YAY FOR THE WIN" until I realised I had to beat up Demix after destroying his water critters, and that he had a bazillion health points. That time I got wiped out on the second round of water creatures. *loathes time limits* And on the fourth time I finally beat him.
He yells "No WAY!" and collapses, disappearing. I yelped in dismay, because I liked Demix, unlike all the XIII that got killed in Chain of Memories (I don't care if Marluxia was secretly the Sakurazukamori, he was also a complete tool) and I didn't WANT him to die, dammit. We shall see.
Sora yells for any other XIII to come out, if they're still there, and Donald and Goofy are like, dude, shut up, we're supposed to be helping Leon! Don't go ASKING for trouble! And Sora says sorry, very sheepishly. At this point Mickey runs up and is like "Hah! FOUND you!" and you are ALL very sheepish and start apologising, but he says "It's hard when you have so many friends" and you're all relieved. Then there is an explosion which causes a rock to ricochet off the cliff towards Mickey; Goofy shoves Mickey out of the way and gets beamed in the head, knocked back hard to slide across the rock face and lie there. Very... still.
Mickey and Donald scream Goofy's name and run to him crying, but he doesn't move. The only thing I can think to say is "I know I said he had an annoying voice, but...", very weakly. They couldn't have killed him. They wouldn't have killed him. Right? I mean, I know this is Square, but it's still Disney, too...
Anyhow, Mickey is PISSED. He yanks off his XIII-style robe to reveal red clothes underneath and calls his keyblade to hand. "I won't forgive this!" he snaps, and runs off with you and Donald following. You then run through the mountains, hindered by a series of barriers you have to fight Heartless to dispel. At each barrier, someone joins you in the fight, because you're by yourself-- not on your party, just there. First fight it's Yuffie, then Leon, then Tifa (I admit to stopping briefly to be mesmerised by her kicking the crap out of stuff), and finally Cloud. Which was SO AWESOME. Also, I seem to have totally ripped of Omnislash at some point. *cheerfully flies through the air slicing stuff with her keyblade* I spend this whole time being paranoid that my disc will freeze before I get to save and I'll have to fight Demix again uuuurgh, but it didn't.
I FINALLY make my way through the pass and catch up with Donald and Mickey, and right when we're about to head Goofy is BACK! Yeah, I totally knew they wouldn't kill him. So then Mickey bowls Goofy over in a massive hug and Donald starts crying and whacks Goofy hard on the leg with his staff and yells that you made us worry and Goofy is generally baffled and in pain, probably not having realised everyone thought he was dead. I spent this whole time chanting to myself "not going there not going there not going there well KHII does seem to advocate threesomes AGH NOT GOING THERE!" which I was also chanting during the bit where Goofy "died".
I want a labotomy. ;_;
After you re-equip Goofy with all his gear and abilities (you suck, Square), it's off to the wide open area surrounding the castle. The moat-ish canyon-ish thing, where you are surrounded by Heartless. There is one of the XIII standing on top of the cliff; he pulls back his hood and it turns out to be none other than ANSEM. Or rather, Fake!Ansem.
Mickey: *teh GASP* Omg! I remember you!
And then you get a flashback of Mickey consulting the real Ansem, king to king, about his research on the Heartless. I was mostly trying to stop the disc freezing at this point so I didn't pay overly much attention to their conversation-- Mickey came to ask Ansem's opinion on something, which Ansem was very flattered about, and they were both worried about something Heartless related. There's a knock on the door, and hey, presto! Fake!Ansem inna lab coat, causing me to briefly wonder if he's Hojo but not very seriously because he doesn't look like him! Real!Ansem calls him Zeyanote (or... something. ze-a-no-o-to were the kana). Zeyanote wants to continue the research and experiments, and Ansem is all, dude, no, forget about it, that's enough. Zeyanote protests, about the heart of the world and the door, and Ansem tells him to just forget it ALL. Zeyanote storms off.
Return to the present. Mickey says, "I remember who you are! You're Zeyanote, Ansem's disciple!"
(I originally read this as younger brother/prince, but that was a mishap with kanji-- they read "younger brother" + "child", and prince is "king" + "child", so I thought it was a splice, you know, the crown prince, but it's disciple.)
He then rushes Zeyanote, and you get lynched by a literal army of Heartless. I am totally serious; you are fighting with Sora alone, and they have a counter up the top of how many Heartless you kill. It was ONE THOUSAND. My thumb was sore at the end from doing that omnislash-like attack repeatedly. Aaaaagh. Zeyanote escapes in a flash of darkness. You continue on, to a cliff overlooking-- is it the town? It probably is-- and cry out in dismay. I dunno, I didn't see much. Maybe it was destroyed looking. Or overrun by Heartless. Anyway. Axel shows up, and you're all rah! but he proceeds to tell you that by going around bashing Heartless with your keyblade, you're just playing right into the XIII's hands. It's just the way Zemnas planned it. (Zemnas is Fake Ansem AKA Zeyanote's XIII name, btw.)
Me: Oh, no. You didn't. Tell me you-- Square, you JERKS.
Yes, they totally did. Aajf;lsjdklf;jaslkd;f. I should have seen it coming. It's such a Square thing to do. But I was LULLED by the simplicity of KHI. Aghraaagh.
That's right, Axel tells you. The XIII want you to go around destroying Heartless with your keyblade, because they want the lost hearts. This whole time, you've been helping them.
Sora demands to know if Axel was the one who dragged off Kairi, and Axel says yeah, that's right. I'm Axel. What, you still don't remember me? Then Sykes appears and Axel says "Oh crap!" Sora then wants to know what happened to Riku, and one of them (*shrug*) says he should ask his precious Ou-sama.
Me: Well, that's ominous-sounding.
Axel scoots, which causes Sora great distress, and Mickey cries out and jumps through the dark gate after him. Sykes says don't worry, I'll deal with his eradication; Sora says he doesn't CARE about that, he just wants to see Kairi, and pleads to be taken to the dark world. Sykes asks if Sora wants to see her enough to beg; Sora gets down on his hands and knees and says "Please."
Sykes: Well, if you want to see her that much... you can't!
Sora: *jumps to his feet* That's horrible!
My order may or may not be messed up, including where Mickey skits (though that is definitely before Sykes tells Sora to beg), but Sora also asks about what Axel said and Sykes tells you that yes, it's true. When Sora destroys Heartless with his keyblade, the lost hearts fly into the sky and the XIII collect them so they can get into Kingdom Hearts. He summons Heartless and Sora doesn't know what to do, because he kills one and he can see the heart flying up to the sky and he's like oh god, they're right. Maleficent at this point materialises and is like, "Rar! MY Kingdom Hearts!" and summons some Heartless of her own. Sykes's response is to disappear his Heartless and summon Nobodies, which trounce the Heartless, and then summon his own Heartless again. Maleficent creates a wall of fire between the trio and Sykes (and his Heartless) and tells them to go. She's not doing this for you-- she still remembers what you did to her-- but she'll hold them off. However, Sora is frozen with indecision, especially when the Nobodies mob Maleficent and she dematerialises. The flame wall disappears a moment after and Sora-tachi are swamped by the endless Heartless. He doesn't know what to do, because he can't fight them, not now he's learned what happens, so all he can do is block and panic. Then you hear Maleficent's disembodied and rather disgusted voice saying that you can't be relied on to do anything for yourselves, honestly.
Cut to Leon and Cloud. There is a beam of light up into the sky and something big is obviously happening back where you were, and he's all frantically worried about Sora (somehow managing to both be recognisably Squall and have emotions at the same time), and Cloud tells him to stop being a moron; they'll have gotten out somehow, because they're strong. Sora was chosen by the keyblade; Cloud's a little jealous of that.
Cut to Sora-tachi in the gummi ship. Sora looks a bit down; "we're always being saved by other people." Flashback to last we saw them; they get dragged down into a dark gate into a place that is empty endless black. The world of darkness! Sora exclaims. You see someone dressed a la the XIII; he (or perhaps she) drops a white box and disappears. You open it. Inside there's an icypole and a photo of Pintz, Orett, Hyne and... Roxas.
Donald says the names of the first three, then wonders who the fourth person is.
Roxas, Sora says softly.
Donald: Do you know him?
Sora: No, I just... know that's who he is.
The icypole is the keyhole. You seal it and vamoose.
Back on the gummi ship, Donald wonders who left that box there. Sora says it was Riku. He doesn't know for sure, but he somehow gets that feeling.
Meanwhile, Olympus, the Pride Land, Halloween Town and Agrabah have all disappeared off the face of the worlds map.
Me: ... what.
Now each of the worlds still remaining, except Disney Castle and Twilight Town, has MULTIPLE KEYHOLES. Oh. My. GOD. In addition to this, a new sentence has appeared in the Port Royal and Land of Dragons journals-- "Peace should have been returned then."
Me: ... YOU JUST LIKE MELODRAMA, SQUARE. ADMIT IT.
And that? That explains why the other worlds are gone, because they all link through one or other of those two worlds. *disgruntled sigh*
Also, these continual plot twists and turns and general convoluted chaos are confusing me. Square has pulled out the big guns. It's like playing FF7 and trying to figure out whether or not Cloud is a clone. MY BRAIN, SHE HURTS.
[On an amusing sidenote, I mentioned to Ji that KHII had gone all FF7 on me.
Ji: What, you mean gay? Uh. Gayer than it already was?
Me: Gayer than usual, you-- haha. No. Well, yes, because Sephiroth and Cloud showed up started being all gay which totally added to the FF7 effect, but that wasn't actually what I meant.]
Frisked by the faeries
So to follow the usual pattern, I of course go to finish off various loose ends before going back to Mulan and PotC, which means picking up the treasure I missed in Hollow Bastion, playing the side quests, and playing through the ripped page I just picked up. There was a bit of a mishap here where I was trying to level up my Wisdom drive and there was a glitch where I just froze in my transformation mode and the battle continued on around me, the monsters unable to touch me. I thought it was amusing for a while, and then I got bored and reset, and it very decidedly ceased to be amusing when my disc wouldn't load anymore, just like the last time.
I think I've figured out why: if I leave it in when it freezes too long, I suspect the laser burns the disc. So I burned KHII Disc The Third, this time making sure NOT to be an impatient twit and burn it at 1x which wasn't as slow comparatively as it should have been, perhaps because I stopped my downloads etc. I'm determined this time if it freezes to just hit reset no matter what, but it hasn't frozen yet, so we shall see.
Anyway, the two Hollow Bastion sidequests involve the usual skateboarding run (Sora must have subsumed Roxas's l337 skillz, clearly) and finding the three treasure-hunting faeries again. (They're not actually called faeries, they just faerie-sized, so.) Found the faeries, who are all, "Hey, YOU! You're liars! Leon didn't have any treasure!" and you're all, *gulp*.
Yuna-tachi: So give us your treasure!
Sora: But we don't have any!
They then get into a circle and whisper things which you can occasionally overhear, and then Ryukku checks you all out.
Ryukku: Mm, as I thought...
Yuna: Give us all your items!
Sora: But--!
And they jerk you around a bit more before Pyne tells you they're not serious, and Yuna says that Leon told them all about you and that you're on a dangerous journey, so they're going to give you this, this being a new keyblade which isn't as good as the one I had equipped (or my second keyblades for Brave and Master forms, either) but is still nice to have. And means I've picked up all the treasure in Hollow Bastion. (Characters are maxed too-- Huey, Dewey, Louis, Scrooge, Donald, Sora, Goofy, Merlin, Pyne, Ryukku, Yuna, Leon, Aerith, Yuffie, Cid, Tifa, Cloud and Sephiroth.)
I actually forgot I was meaning to do the skateboard minigame so went to Merlin's house to complete the next page of Winnie the Pooh instead.
But before that, I will mention that I ran into Cloud in Ansem's study-- he says "Tell me if you run into a man with long silver hair and a long sword. His name is Sephiroth. He's my... darkness."
Aside from wondering why we have failed to in fact tell Cloud we ran into Sephiroth, I also wonder what was up with that pause. It's a bit sus if you ask me. HM.
(And on that note, Cloud must totally be avoiding Tifa, because she's in the town area and she still hasn't found him. Huh.)
The Adventures Of Somebody-From-Somewhere-San, Part Three!
The latest location in the 100 Acre Wood is Rabbit's house, which is also where Eeyore has set up his house. Eeyore's house gets knocked over, as per usual, this time by Pooh, who greets Eeyore with "Hello for the first time!" and if possible depresses Eeyore more. Pooh is out for honey as always and Piglet thinks maybe Pooh will remember if he's not hungry anymore. Eeyore says it's not going to work, but he'll show you to some honey he saw anyway. (He seems to be shaken about being forgotten.) We see Rabbit stacking pots of honey. He goes to get more, and we amble on in, unleashing the devastation that is Pooh upon the honey. Rabbit comes back with more honey and is obviously appalled-- "My honey... POOH!"
Pooh: Honey! I want more honey! Can I have more honey, Somebody-san? *takes Rabbit's pot*
Rabbit: *stunned* Somebody?
Sora apologises profusely and explains that it's their fault, because they led him here. Rather deflated, Rabbit says no, don't worry, Pooh is like a force of nature anyway. (Not literal translation there, but it gives the general gist.) He gives the honey to Pooh and says maybe Pooh is hungry and he'll remember after eating more.
Piglet: That's what I thought!
Eeyore: It'll never work.
Pooh eats the honey Rabbit gives him and is STILL hungry, so Rabbit sends us to get the honey that is hard to reach. We then play a minigame which involves sliding at high speed along a stone-littered path trying to pick up honey and not drop Pooh. At one stage you have to rescue Gopher, and there are a few times when you fall out of one page and into another, which is pretty cool, because the pages have actual passages from the Winnie The Pooh book on them.
After that, Pooh is STILL hungry, and STILL doesn't remember people. Rabbit gives up and gets very depressed; Pooh says something along the lines of "What's wrong, Rabbit?"
Seeing his friends depressed seems to jog his memory. Hm. Anyway, he remembers Eeyore, too, but still doesn't remember Sora. Surprise, surprise.
Once I perfect clear the honey slider game, we're done with 100 Acre Wood for now, so on to Mulan!
Srsly, Square, WHAT? My brain hurts so bad. ;;
You appear in the burned village and see one of the XIII. :O! you say, and move to chase after him when Mulan runs up and calls out your name. Sora tells her sorry, but you're kind of in a hurry trying to chase after that guy, but she says that she's chasing him too so on you go. Up the mountain we go, until we catch sight of him again and he summons hordes of Heartless down the slope like Shan Yu did. Sora then gets the dubious joy of fighting off the XIII and the Heartless at the same time, until the XIII guy runs away.
Special note should be taken of his weapon, which one should recognise from both KHI and CoM.
Yeah, I don't need to explain that, because as the guy runs off Sora stares after him with a confused, lost expression and says "... Riku?"
He doesn't know why, he just gets the feeling that it's Riku, which makes him want to catch up doubly so. He's disappeared off somewhere, though, and we've got more important things to worry about. Like, for example, the mega dragon-shaped Heartless making for the capital.
Haha, oops.
Cut to the throne room, where there is one of the XIII talking to Shang and the Emperor, telling them about the dragon thingo. He could be threatening the Emperor; we don't get the context, but this XIII did smack Shang out of the way to reach the Emperor.
Back we run to the Imperial Palace, of course being beset by Heartless repeatedly along the way, but the doors are shut tight. Note we haven't gone past here previously. Mulan has the bright idea of climbing up the support posts and dropping down, which was cooler in the movie because of the earlier reference but I'm getting the movie now for rewatching so THAT'S okay. In the palace now, there is one of the XIII standing in front of the doors to the throne room.
Sora: Riku, is that you?!
Donald and Goofy: Say WHAT? Why is Riku one of the XIII?
Sora: *ignores*
The XIII pulls back his hood, and oh, false alarm, it's this old scarred guy. Number 2, Sigbaal.
He summons a whole heap of... Heartless? Nobodies? Who remembers, by this point-- and we bash them up and Goofy and Donald question Sora about the Riku thing, reminding him that this would mean Riku was on the wrong side again, but Sora has no answers, he just thought he felt Riku. Mulan interrupts at this point-- she's worried about Shang and the Emperor-- so we run forth into the throne room. Shang and the Emperor are fine, but Mulan is all like "emergency! huge monster!" and Emperor says "Ah, it's just like that young man clothed in black said."
Sora: OMFG RIKU!
Goofy & Donald: ...................
But Sora has no time to press about this because BOOM! from outside, the boss has arrived and we run out to do battle! (Which Shang protests, obviously worried about Mulan, but she tells him to take care of the Emperor, she's with Sora and the others so she'll be fine.)
Once that is over, and nowhere near as easily as I just made out because it has a bazillion health points, its carcas almost falls on and crushes Mulan, but Shang runs out to shield her (AAAW <3) and it fades away, a heart flying up into the sky.
Then there are fireworks (Siobhan: *wonders if this implies that China has emergency fireworks on hand at all times just in case the capital is saved from a catastrophy*), we return to the throne room and the Emperor asks Sora what he wants in return for saving the capital (again). Goofy and Donald are all :D! but before they can say anything Sora bursts out "I want to know about the guy dressed in black!"
I personally wondered if they wouldn't have just told him anyway, but hey. XD
The Emperor tells Sora about how there's a power flowing through the kingdom-- empire? what is or was China?-- called the dragon pulse and ... god, I don't remember. The XIII guy said something about how if the people who became Heartless got their hands on this power it would be bad. Or something. The Jiminy journal is utterly useless and doesn't mention this at all. *grumpy* Shang imitates his voice and says something about how "I was going to sort this out but I don't need to hang around because those three will be here soon and I know they can deal with it." and says the young guy had no manners.
Sora: Had no manners? Omg! It IS Riku! He's okay! (I: *crack up* "he had no manners! it MUST be Riku!")
Goofy & Donald: Uh, sorry to burst your bubble but WHY IS HE ONE OF THE XIII?!
Sora: Who cares? He's okay! :D
Me: Aaaaaaaaaaaw. <3333
The Emperor then asks what Mulan wants and she surprises him (and Shang) by asking, very embarrassed, for a holiday for Shang. The Emperor is baffled by the fact he is surrounded by people who don't want things for themselves, but he says he can't do that because then he wouldn't have anyone to protect him and Mulan deflates. However, he goes on, instead I will offer you a position as one of my personal guards (which is what Shang appears to be) so you can be together.
And Shang and Mulan are super happy and hug each other and it's really sweet and Sora has to scrub his arm across his eyes because he's a total romantic, obviously. That's the end of Mulan-- for REAL, this time, with all the journal entries maxed out. *satisfied nod*
Kingdom Hearts II: *continues on in its wicked, threesome-advocating ways*
Back to Port Royal. Zoned out for large parts of this, heh. For some reason there are skeletons running around again, and we're like "okay wut". Elizabeth asks Jack for his help because Will has gone off to the Island of the Dead to check what's going on with the cursed coins and she wants to go after him. Not to save him, mind. He doesn't need saving, she says. Yeah, sure.
Well, she has to bribe Jack with some undecided reward to get him to agree, but it's back to Dead Land. We find Will's ship, The Intercepter, which has been attacked by monsters, and we go on board to check if Will is okay. He's exhausted from being attacked by the monsters, and says they're still around. Jack is all like "leave me out of this, yo" but when you go out on to the deck, there stands one of the XIII. He pulls back his hood-- blond guy, short cropped hair and a beard. Number 10, Rooksode, which means the only XIII we're missing from our character map now are 3 (whom we have the hooded form of, and is presumably Axel) and 13 (who there is no picture for at all yet and is-- obviously by this point-- going to be Riku, as the newest members are the larger numbers and he'd be the newest.)
Wait, hold it, why isn't there a number for Roxas?
Oh, whatever.
He's got the chest of cursed coins and Jack is like, well shit. You're about to attack but he invokes Parley and then while you're arguing with Jack about it he summons Heartless, which nick coins from the chest, and the Intercepter gets sunk with you on it. You end up washed up in the Ship Graveyard, and Jack has been cursed again. By the monsters which took the coins, rather than directly by the coins. Sora-tachi are not, and we conclude it's because different worlds, different rules. Sora has a moment of angst wondering when he can finally go home, but we get on with it. Four coins have been taken, and we have to beat up Heartless to time limits to get them back. (Jack knows how many because he's got a pirate's skills of observation.) Unfortunately you have to beat up zombie pirates before the coin thieving Heartless show, and that's included in the time limit, and to hurt them at all they have to be in the moonlight.
(On a sidenote, for some reason about 50% of the time when I use my Wisdom drive I turn into a Heartless instead. UM. What is UP with that? It's very inconvenient! You can't return until all the enemies are dead or you use up your drive metre, and all you can do is attack! Attack like a beserker, granted, but it's CREEPY. Oh well, I put that down to the creepiness of Port Royal in general at this stage.)
Once that's done, Jack is like, now let's GET the bastards, and Elizabeth says she thought he didn't want anything to do with it. Jack replies that he doesn't like being made to do what those guys want him to do, so we go back to Port Royal. Can't remember if we see Rooksode again, but the main zombie Heartless is there for the boss battle. Ditch the coins in the chest; Jack is still undead. Why? Because he was cursed by the monster, not the coins. We have to defeat the monster.
So then ensues a boss battle where it keeps stealing vast numbers of cursed coins from the chest and you have to get them back and dump them in the chest so you can hurt it. At one stage one of the coins pinged off somewhere really random and I couldn't find it for ages, which was very frustrating. Plus, it has megaloads of HP, just like all bosses seem to recently. Nevertheless, it died eventually, the day is saved, blah blah blah. Jack wants to know where the reward he was promised is.
Elizabeth: Uh... ABOUT that...
Jack: I want that sword the kid has!
Sora: *smirks and hands it over*
The Keyblade: *disappears and reappears in Sora's hand*
Jack: ... Aw, man. Well, you can keep it for now. Just until I come back for it.
And then he demands that Will and Elizabeth serve on Black Pearl as his loyal minions instead, and Elizabeth is like "yey cool!" and Will is like "wait WHAT?" and I am reminded again that KHII likes threesomes. XD
Goofy wonders if maybe Jack WILL be able to use the keyblade one day, because he and Sora are kind of alike. Sora and Jack say "As IF!" in tandem and everyone laughs at them. Then the Black Pearl sails off into the sunset, with Will and Elizabeth voicing over how the famous pirate Captain Jack Sparrow continued his travels on the Black Pearl, and that's PotC done for good, with the journal completed properly. Hooray!
Somebody-From-Somewhere-San, Part The Fourth!
There was a torn page in the second episode of Port Royal, and so it's back to the 100 Acre Wood. This time it's Kanga's house-- she and Roo have come up with a medicine that might help Pooh regain his memories. However, before we get the chance to try it, Tigger bounces through like a whirlwind and snatches it, ooh hohohooooo~! We chase after him to tell him that no, dude, you don't want that, it's medicine and it's for Pooh. Tigger is shocked to hear that Pooh doesn't remember him, and decides that if he bounces around Pooh will CLEARLY remember ore-sama. Bounce, bounce, bounce, how was that?
That looks like it would make one hungry, Pooh says, quite worried and obviously not remembering Tigger.
Tigger: :O!
But Tigger never gives up, so he decides you should all bounce together, and you get a minigame involving a trampoline and balloons and pressing the triangle button with the right timing. It's quite fun, once you get the hang of it.
However, afterwards, Pooh still doesn't remember Tigger. Tigger gets very depressed and says he's going to give up bouncing because it holds no meaning now (me: aaaaaw! *sniffle*) and starts to trudge away, but then Pooh says something-- I think along the lines of "what's wrong, Tigger?" or something about Tigger giving up bouncing-- but the important thing is he says Tigger's name and Tigger is super happy and it's all okay. Yay! Of course he doesn't remember Sora but we don't expect him to by this point.
However, at the end of the chapter/episode/page/whatev, Pooh has a dream which is kind of like an out of body experience of the end of the 100 Acre Wood quest in KHI, where they're all on the hill waving to Sora at night, and he's like "Who is that? Next time... I'll remember next time..."
With this, we've got all the characters cleared, and there are 2 torn pages left to go.
Yet Another Interlude
Since we're in Hollow Bastion anyway and I forgot on the last sweep through, I go in search of the skateboarding game again. Turns out you have to talk to Scrooge. Anyway, I cleared that, and because there were enemies hanging around as they are wont to do, I used them as a way to try levelling up my Wisdom form, which I did, meaning my Brave form is level 3, my Wisdom form is level 2, my Master form is still level 1 (*deflate*) and my summon level is level 2. If only it didn't take so long to refill my Drive gauge, this wouldn't take so damn long. Also, it would help if I actually knew how to get experience for my forms. It's a bit hit and miss. I try to use them and just hope, really. Some times it works, and sometimes it doesn't. (Also, I can't figure out how to use my summons properly. They're a little more complex this time.)
But back to me using my drive forms in Hollow Bastion: I used it about two or three times.
And one of those times I turned into a Heartless again WHAT. I thought that was just PotC! AIIEEE that is actually REALLY FREAKING CREEPY! And sudden! I suspect it must involve Roxas and his being a Nobody somehow, because it seems to have started since I went to the world of Darkness and saw that photo--
Wait, maybe it's because I went to the world of Darkness.
Uh.
Oh well, whatever, the point is sometimes I turn into a Heartless. And it's creepy. Clearly I need boppy Disney songs to make this better.
Unda za shiiiiii! (subarashii!)
Yes, by which I mean, back to Atlantica. At some point which I didn't notice (probably when I finished Port Royal again) I picked up a form of magic. It's called magune, which is short for magunetto, which is the Japanese rendering of magnet. God knows how it'll get translated once we get to the magura stage of things (fira, thundara, blizzara... magnera?) but that's what it is. Maybe it's a replacement for gravity. I can't say I've used it in battle-- I don't usually use any magic except cure, quite honestly, because drives and renkei (lit. "cooperation", they're duo attacks that use up all your MP and are kind of like a limit break, though not as much as drives are) are more fun-- but I believe the effect is to draw the enemy closer to you. If I wasn't so lazy it would be a very strategic kind of spell to use in boss battles where the boss flies, but I am that lazy, and also I'm generally strong enough to stand a bit of a thumping while waiting for them to come into my reach again. (Also, one wonders if it would even work on bosses.)
... Also, on a relevant side note, the manual only lists fire, thunder, blizzard and cure under magic. How odd. Maybe it's a spoiler thing. Eh.
But anyway, the point is magnet is the magic you need to get the statue of Eric. So we present ourselves once more in Atlantica and tell Flounder yes, all systems are go, and then we cut to Ariel's trove, with the statue of Eric smackbang in the middle.
Sora: He looks like a prince!
Ariel: He's a human prince?
Wow, was this a dumb idea.
So then Ariel breaks out into Part Of Your World-- a shortened version, but not the refrain-ish thing she sang to Eric on the beach. It's actually not that bad, it's just that some of the wording amuses me and the Japanese words don't quite fit the way they ought and Ariel's Japanese voice is, while still quite good, not as gorgeous as English Ariel's voice. So more singing means we get to dance in time again, which is a bit more complicated this time because the buttons change around.
After I cleared that, the game booted me out of Atlantica and told me I needed an S-level drive gauge. Huh wha? How many levels do I have to level up my drive forms for THAT? It's up to five at the moment, but...
Well, I went back in to clear Part Of Your World again for the minigame record, and while I was trying to find it (turns out every time you clear one of the musical scores it gets added to the green glowing orb where you played the first one) I ended up talking to Sebastian and getting roped into Under The Sea.
Yes, instead of Heartless, Atlantica is the magical world of sparkles and kittens (catfish?) and music and dancing! Hurrah! Although it does make me regret that they're not singing the original English versions. I'm a bit torn with Under The Sea, though, because Sora sings the "Darling, it's better down where it's wetter, take it from me!" lines and his Japanese voice is lovely, unlike his English voice. Also, some parts of it are unintentionally hilarious. Or they are to ME. Because it just sounds so funny that they keep 'darling' in English when the rest of the line is Japanese. Or the way the chorus goes "Unda za shii! (subarashii!)" which got stuck in my head all evening. *giggle* But it does throw me a lot to hear it in another language. It was partially because I was distracted trying to remember the English lyrics that I took several tries to clear this. XD Of course it IS just a lot harder-- the timing gauges are much faster, and you have to keep to a better standard to clear too.
What *I* want to know is, why was I booted after Part Of Your World? What does my drive gauge have to do anything? It didn't stop me moving on in the plot. O.o;
At the end of it, Ariel tells Sebastian she's not going to sing it and that she'll only participate in the musical if it's a song both humans and merpeople could enjoy. Sebastian points out that King Triton would never allow it, and Ariel says fine, I won't sing, and swims off in a huff, us in tow. Meanwhile Sebastian is worrying to himself about all the trouble he'll be in if King Triton finds out that Ariel is in love with a human.
Triton is, of course, right behind him. And not happy, Jan! Sebastian wisely makes a break for it. We cut to the surface, where Eric is walking around on the beach and Ariel is staring wistfully from the distance. She points him out to Sora, and then he leaves the beach, accidentally dropping a locket as he goes. Ariel notices this and swims towards the beach; the locket has been pulled into the waves and is stuck in between some rocks. We can't reach it without an upgrade to our magnet magic, so that means no more Atlantica until later notice.
Oh well. That means (after clearing Under The Sea again) it's back to the worlds map.
Impossible Minigames PAIN ME.
I went back to Twilight Town, cause I thought maybe I could wipe out those evil bees within 10 seconds this time with my explosion technique. It took a bit of strategy in addition to this technique, but after a while trying, yes, I managed to do so. Huzzah! However, I still can't perfect clear the posters (30s, 30 posters, that's a poster per second and I have to run between billboards! It's IMPOSSIBLE!) or the garbage. (9 bits of garbage, 5 hits to destroy them all. It takes three hits to destroy them, but you can knock them into each other. You can also shove them around by walking into them. It's time-consuming and horribly boring and I can never bring myself to more than one attempt at a time.)
Also, I still can't get that treasure chest. I have a feeling I maybe never will. I am depressed by this. Square, do you have ANY IDEA how horribly unfair it is to have a one-time-only location that early on?! I hadn't even noticed the Jiminy journal yet at that stage!
Then again, the Twilight Town story isn't finished yet, so MAYBE I can go back to Yen Sid's tower eventually. Wah.
I KNEW it'd come back to bite us.
Yes, obviously Jafar's lamp was just begging for him to come back and wreak havoc, so we get a shot of the short merchant guy cowering and genie!Jafar returning, Iago flying down the steps and freaking out... and then we flip forward in time, us landing in the merchant's shop which is now bedecked with gold and jewels and such.
Sora: Wow, you've had a good change in fortune. O.o
Merchant: Don't you say that! I ain't done nothin'! I'm honest, me! *looks shifty*
Me: ........................... *facepalm*
So the obvious conclusion to leap to is that he sold out to Jafar. Hm. Anyway, Aladdin and Abu come running in, Aladdin still dressed like a street rat (given the movie ended with him married to Jasmine and dressed like a prince, I thought we'd be seeing an improvement in his fortunes, but apparently not), and I'm not sure when Aladdin yelled catch him he meant Abu or the merchant. Either way, the merchant amscrayed.
Aladdin tells us that Jafar is back and both Agrabah and we are in danger, us having been the ones to seal him in the lamp in the first place. We're all very mistrustful of Iago, who is all panicky and says he knows where Jafar is, he'll tell us everything, really! Aladdin says Iago had better-- he'll only get one chance, and if he lies to us...
Iago tells us it's out in the desert, but there's a problem-- he points to a set of ruins in the distance enveloped in a hug sandstorm. We're all 'fuck, now what' but then Genie shows up and is like yay I will do anything to help Al ol' buddy ol' pal, A~l Al Al whaddaya need me for, just let me do it-- and Aladdin says okay, and Genie is like :D and then he sees what he has to do.
Genie: Oh, is THAT all. D: *waves hand boredly, sandstorm go poof!*
Everyone else: :O!
Genie: A~l, next time can't you call me for something harder?
We go off to the ruins on the magic carpet, which is interesting in battle because you need to use both analog sticks to move. We chase a watery Jafar around for a while (on that topic, they say his name so it sounds like "jaffa"! No, really, I couldn't stop laughing. Jafar just became junk food! XDDD) and then we have to do this thing involving switches and magic to open a door into this tower and fly back top speed because it starts counting down once you're done with the last switch. You run inside and Sora is all like "We trounce you now, Jafar!"
Silence.
Jafar is so totally not there. Aladdin and Sora go "RAH!" at Iago, who lied and now admits it (he's such a scaredy-cat, and Jafar is big and nasty) and tells us that actually Jafar is at the Palace. He's like forgive me please forgive me waaaah and Aladdin and Sora are all "SO no", and then Iago knocks a jar off a switch and we have to make a break for it on the carpet because everything is collapsing. This clearly has to happen at least once in Aladdin. *amused* The carpet moves mostly by itself, we just have to handle the left-right-not-whacking-into-stuff aspect and kill Heartless on our way through. (Which later becomes the last Agrabah minigame.)
Once we're back in Agrabah, we run towards the Palace, but on the way we find the merchant, who comes clean with us. Jafar tried to palm off a story about how he was the rightful Sultan and he'd been imprisoned by evil people, but like the merchant was gonna believe that load of crock, especially since Jafar wouldn't give him any treasure.
Us: .......... Right.
Sora: So Jafar DIDN'T give you the treasure?
Merchant: Oh, no, a man dressed in black did.
Us: . . . . . . .
Merchant: I'm sorry I lied but he said that if I told anyone the treasure was Jafar's Agrabah would be destroyed! And it's better that Jafar not have the treasure! I was just worried about the people of Agrabah, really!
Sora: ... And you BELIEVED that?
Merchant: Well, duh. I'd believe anything for this much treasure. (For once, I am not exaggerating humorously. He actually did say this.)
Us: *FACEPALM*
This whole time Iago has been flapping pointedly in the background and he's quite exhausted by the time we finally notice and remember we're supposed to be going to the Palace. So off we go, and find Jasmine chained to the Palace gates and Jafar monologuing on about how he's going to be the Sultan and how he'll marry Jasmine to make it look legit and how Aladdin is going to die screaming her name. Jasmine is looking pissed off during this tirade, but then she looks past him and brightens, calling Aladdin's name, and Jafar turns around to see us standing behind him.
The only somewhat abbreviated and mostly accurate follows!
Jafar: Oh, not YOU again. *tries to blast Aladdin*
Iago: Al! *flies in the way and gets a nasty electric shock, falling to the ground*
All: Iago!
Jafar: *goes genie*
Boss battle: *ensues. with only Sora, meaning no renkei, drives, or summons.*
Jafar: *has shitloads of health*
Despite this: *the battles is not in fact that terrible*
Jafar: *gets pwned*
Lamp: *disappears*
All: *rejoice!*
Genie: Yo! ... AL WHY DID YOU NOT CALL ME TO GET RID OF JAFAR. *sulk*
Donald: It's already over, yo.
Genie: *woobie face*
Aladdin: We still need you to help fix Agrabah, Genie.
Genie: *brightens* I can make it a hundred times better!
Aladdin: Uh... no thanks, just the way it was.
Genie: Oh, fine. Spoilsport. *fixes Agrabah*
Iago: *is alive, because this is still Disney, after all* Wow, he must be a really useful friend. *wistful*
Sora: Dude, being a friend is not about how useful you are. It's about being there for each other.
Genie: Is there anything else I can do, Al? Huh, huh? *to Sora* Have you guys seen my show yet? Call me any time you need help! *creates hyperactive Genie!fireworks*
Aladdin: Oh, that's right, have you found your friend yet, Sora?
Sora: *wilts* Not yet...
Aladdin: *clasps Sora's shoulder* Don't worry, I believe in you.
And that's where we end, with Genie fireworks and Aladdin's hand on Sora's shoulder. I'm mildly disturbed, actually-- I was expecting a conclusion to Aladdin/Jasmine, and instead I get Genie/Al and Aladdin/Sora. I don't WANT to go there! I'm happy with Aladdin/Jasmine! SQUARE THIS IS ALL *YOUR* FAULT. Clearly, they have the Midas touch... only for GAY. And I thought that was me, but it's worse because at least I'm doing it on purpose. Usually. But not right now! They make it so hard not to! Aiiya.
With that, Agrabah is finito, and a new episode opens up in Hollow Bastion. Only I suspect it'll involve Cloud and Sephiroth, and I've always been the kind of person who eats the vegetables first and saves my favourite food for last, so I haven't gone to it yet, despite having a new torn page from Winnie The Pooh, and decided to go to Halloween Town instead. Not that I'm comparing Halloween Town to vegetables, mind you. I adore Jack Skellington, and Sally, and Jack/Sally. But Sephiroth/Cloud is one of my major OTPs, much like Seishirou/Subaru. Also, I hadn't been to Halloween Town when it became available before and as I suspected there'd be two episodes, I thought it would make sense to go clear the first one now instead of having them occur really close together.
Which is a long winded way of saying "and then I went to Halloween Town", really. XD
Next time: ... And then, I went to Halloween Town. *grin*
Ooh, my blood-sugar was disgustingly high so I took some fast insulin in addition to my overnight insulin, but I probably should have eaten more at the same time because now I'm shaking. God I'm stupid. *goes to boost her sugars, and then play KHII, ignoring the fact that she's going to be forced out of bed for tradesmen in less than 8 hours and has work tomorrow night-- thereby reinforcing her last statement.*
... And Asian Studies STILL hasn't scheduled their class times, 2 weeks after the draft timetable went up. Sodding hell, they're lazy. What if I have a clash? O-week is in two weeks!
Anyway! Yesterday I went over to Mari and Sis's and saw them for the first time in 2 months. <333 Sis had her first day of year 11 today, so I hope that went okay. Um, as filled with boring assemblies as it probably was. Today, I'm... in kind of a grumpy mood. Well, not so much as I was earlier, although the hunger thing is a bother. I'm just grumpy about the continual presence of tradesmen (I have to get up for them again tomorrow, and mum told me they would be finished by Christmas and that I'd still have 2 months of my holidays free of them. There's only 2 weeks of my holiday left, and they really are very disruptive), and the continual arguments with my mother (I will readily admit to part of the fault here, but I need a lot of solitude and I just haven't been getting that recently), and the being forced against my will to go to a dietitian on Friday (I don't want to go, I don't NEED to go, and I was at no point consulted about the timing for this, and I don't want to catch buses and waste 3 hours of my day either), and my dog bit me because my mother was yelling at me (she gets upset when people yell and generally tries to bite... me) and my dog's operation is tomorrow.
And I'm sure I sound like a whiny brat, for which I apologise. Also that sentence was DISGUSTINGLY long and my inner grammar nazi cringes at it. But I felt the need to rant. ^^;
I have figured out where my writing mojo has gone; Fahye did not steal it. It has been channelled into these summaries, which have by this point exceeded 20000 words. *looks shifty* I just don't know how to be brief, clearly. I suspect other people probably mind this mojo-transmutation than I do, though, as I don't feel too bad about not writing anything much after Christmas. Which is not to say that I am not a little exasperated with myself for not working on CCS!X more and at least finishing the Hokuto chapter, but I have tunnel vision. When I get obsessed with one thing, I can't focus on anything BUT that. (Example: anyone unfortunate enough to catch me during me crazy House phase should know how scary my levels of obsession can reach. Compare that to the fact that I am now at least 2 episodes behind because my shifting obsessions-- first back to FF7, and then to KH-- leave no room for me to want to watch them. It's not that I don't still love House, I just can't concentrate on it.)
Speaking of the above, more on the summaries. Also I got fed up of not understanding some functions properly about halfway through this and went to find scans of the manual, which was completely and utterly useless and didn't tell me anything I didn't know. I realise I should have expected this, but hey, hope springs eternal and I still don't know how to level my drives properly. *g*
Wherein I Obsessively Transcribe The (Translated) Conversation I Had With Sephiroth. Plus, The Wrong Just Got Wronger
We head off to see what's going down in Hollow Bastion. Donald says that Ou-sama is by himself out there and we have to hurry, which I attempt to firmly ignore. Cut to ARMIES of Heartless and Nobodies, and then to Maleficent and Pete. The black are Heartless, the white are Nobodies. Pete freaks out and makes a break for it, and then Sora turns up and Maleficent sics her hordes of minions on him before disappearing. You beat on the multidinous enemy, and when it's dispatched, Yuna-tachi reappear. They have a long whispered conversation until Sora tells them if they're going to choose sides they should help Leon and asks them who they are. Yuna says their names aren't important, they're just obsessed with treasure, and they want to know if Leon has any. Donald tells them Leon has AWESOME treasure and they're like "WHOO!" and disappear. Goofy and Sora are like, "dude, what treasure?" and Donald cackles evilly and runs off. There are more Nobodies, which you don't actually have to fight because you whack them off one-hit KO in a cutscene and continue running, until...
"O. M. F. G." I say out loud.
SEPHIROTH.
How is it that you can recognise HIM from Cloud's description and can't recognise Cloud from Tifa's? Must be the mention of big sword. Or perhaps the hair colour. Well, anyway. Goofy calls Sephiroth "the embodiment of Cloud's darkness" which is presumably what Cloud called him in that conversation I forgot parts of.
I then proceed to spend the next conversation SWOONING AT HIS VOICE OH GOD and pausing obsessively to transcribe everything he says because he's SEPHIROTH.
Sephiroth: I suppose Cloud told you that. So, it seems like you understand.
Sora: What do you intend to do to Cloud?!
(Me: *SNIGGER*)
Sephiroth: Saa. He's the one who's seeking the darkness.
(So pretty. Oh god. Voice. And reading into what he said... *SNERK* He's so TOTALLY self-assured that Cloud will chase after him.)
Sora: He said it was to put an end to it!
(Yeah, suuuuuuuure. That's what he SAID.)
Sephiroth: I see. So that means he wants to see me? *turns and starts walking away* In that case, I'll do as he wishes.
(fjkas;djfkl;sa *goo*
Also, haha, Sephiroth is totally Wesley. "As you wish"!)
Sephiroth: It seems he wants to erase the dimly remaining light.
And then Sephiroth flies up into a gate of darkness and I am left going "omg. omg." a lot. XD
Goofy says that Sephiroth is a little like Cloud, and that we need to tell Cloud we saw Sephiroth, but for now we have to help everyone. So we run back off in the direction of the town in time to see Leon bash a Heartless before it gets Aerith. He says that Mickey is at the bailey area and he'll leave it to you. You get accosted by a large bunch of Heartless/Nobodies. One of the kinds of Nobodies is really annoying, because it can grab you and swing you around which is painful and once you're grabbed it's hard to break the cycle of them grabbing you AGAIN after they throw you in the air. We run out to the bailey area where there's a lot of destruction and walls knocked over, and my disc freezes again. SIGH. So I reset, fight that battle again, and skip the event. I don't think I missed anything this time, at least.
It opens up a new area. You enter that, and Mickey is there; he tells Sora to go rescue Riku and Kairi, but Sora is all "But I made a promise to Leon!" Mickey points out there's heaps of people here to fight so it'll be okay, and tells Goofy and Donald to take Sora to rescue the other two if necessary. They're essentially all like "Of course, Ou-sama!" and Sora feels very betrayed about this, but then they start winking at him and Sora catches on (Mickey's back is turned). Sora agrees with them, and says "Let's go!"... then they run past Mickey and jump down to the next level, yelling back "SORRY, OU-SAMA! PLEASE FORGIVE US!" before they amscray.
I love Mickey's expression. It's just so fondly exasperated. Like, "SIGH." *giggle*
Anyway, in the next screen, guess who returns? Demix! Yey! Next to Axel he's my favourite of the XIII. *hearts madly* Um, in case you've forgotten, he's the one from Olympus. With the sitar. Who was all "Roxas come baaaaaaaaaaaaack!" (It seems that the romanisation is going to be Roxas, and so I'm giving in to the inevitable, as you may have noticed.) So now he's all like "Yipe!" and looks like he's going to make a break for it. Sora is like, hey, you're one of the XIII, you were the one in Hercules' world, what are you doing here? Donald says that the XIII are pathetic and Dexim is very affronted, complaining that you don't judge someone you don't know. Then he spoils it by turning around and muttering that if he faces away, like this...
Sora: ... What is up with this guy?
Then you're all like dude, that's right, you XIII are Nobodies! You have no heart! Which also offends Dexim-- "Hey, that's not it at all!" Donald tells him you're going to shut him up, basically, and then suddenly Dexim goes from sort of ineffectual cute complaining to a really serious, bitter voice (think Kantarou near the end of Tactics when Haruka is persona non gratis and Reiko is trying to offer sympathy), pointing at Sora:
(... Hm, how should I translate this. Shizukani is be quiet, urusai is generally shut up, and damare is a lot ruder because of the imperative form. And rough speech is on par with swearing in Japanese. Sooooo...)
"Shut the fuck up, betrayer!"
Ooer.
Then you get into a really nasty fight. It's nasty because of the time limits-- you have to destroy I think 50? water creatures in 40 seconds, then you have to bash Demix. First two times I didn't even clear stage one. Third time I was like "YAY FOR THE WIN" until I realised I had to beat up Demix after destroying his water critters, and that he had a bazillion health points. That time I got wiped out on the second round of water creatures. *loathes time limits* And on the fourth time I finally beat him.
He yells "No WAY!" and collapses, disappearing. I yelped in dismay, because I liked Demix, unlike all the XIII that got killed in Chain of Memories (I don't care if Marluxia was secretly the Sakurazukamori, he was also a complete tool) and I didn't WANT him to die, dammit. We shall see.
Sora yells for any other XIII to come out, if they're still there, and Donald and Goofy are like, dude, shut up, we're supposed to be helping Leon! Don't go ASKING for trouble! And Sora says sorry, very sheepishly. At this point Mickey runs up and is like "Hah! FOUND you!" and you are ALL very sheepish and start apologising, but he says "It's hard when you have so many friends" and you're all relieved. Then there is an explosion which causes a rock to ricochet off the cliff towards Mickey; Goofy shoves Mickey out of the way and gets beamed in the head, knocked back hard to slide across the rock face and lie there. Very... still.
Mickey and Donald scream Goofy's name and run to him crying, but he doesn't move. The only thing I can think to say is "I know I said he had an annoying voice, but...", very weakly. They couldn't have killed him. They wouldn't have killed him. Right? I mean, I know this is Square, but it's still Disney, too...
Anyhow, Mickey is PISSED. He yanks off his XIII-style robe to reveal red clothes underneath and calls his keyblade to hand. "I won't forgive this!" he snaps, and runs off with you and Donald following. You then run through the mountains, hindered by a series of barriers you have to fight Heartless to dispel. At each barrier, someone joins you in the fight, because you're by yourself-- not on your party, just there. First fight it's Yuffie, then Leon, then Tifa (I admit to stopping briefly to be mesmerised by her kicking the crap out of stuff), and finally Cloud. Which was SO AWESOME. Also, I seem to have totally ripped of Omnislash at some point. *cheerfully flies through the air slicing stuff with her keyblade* I spend this whole time being paranoid that my disc will freeze before I get to save and I'll have to fight Demix again uuuurgh, but it didn't.
I FINALLY make my way through the pass and catch up with Donald and Mickey, and right when we're about to head Goofy is BACK! Yeah, I totally knew they wouldn't kill him. So then Mickey bowls Goofy over in a massive hug and Donald starts crying and whacks Goofy hard on the leg with his staff and yells that you made us worry and Goofy is generally baffled and in pain, probably not having realised everyone thought he was dead. I spent this whole time chanting to myself "not going there not going there not going there well KHII does seem to advocate threesomes AGH NOT GOING THERE!" which I was also chanting during the bit where Goofy "died".
I want a labotomy. ;_;
After you re-equip Goofy with all his gear and abilities (you suck, Square), it's off to the wide open area surrounding the castle. The moat-ish canyon-ish thing, where you are surrounded by Heartless. There is one of the XIII standing on top of the cliff; he pulls back his hood and it turns out to be none other than ANSEM. Or rather, Fake!Ansem.
Mickey: *teh GASP* Omg! I remember you!
And then you get a flashback of Mickey consulting the real Ansem, king to king, about his research on the Heartless. I was mostly trying to stop the disc freezing at this point so I didn't pay overly much attention to their conversation-- Mickey came to ask Ansem's opinion on something, which Ansem was very flattered about, and they were both worried about something Heartless related. There's a knock on the door, and hey, presto! Fake!Ansem inna lab coat, causing me to briefly wonder if he's Hojo but not very seriously because he doesn't look like him! Real!Ansem calls him Zeyanote (or... something. ze-a-no-o-to were the kana). Zeyanote wants to continue the research and experiments, and Ansem is all, dude, no, forget about it, that's enough. Zeyanote protests, about the heart of the world and the door, and Ansem tells him to just forget it ALL. Zeyanote storms off.
Return to the present. Mickey says, "I remember who you are! You're Zeyanote, Ansem's disciple!"
(I originally read this as younger brother/prince, but that was a mishap with kanji-- they read "younger brother" + "child", and prince is "king" + "child", so I thought it was a splice, you know, the crown prince, but it's disciple.)
He then rushes Zeyanote, and you get lynched by a literal army of Heartless. I am totally serious; you are fighting with Sora alone, and they have a counter up the top of how many Heartless you kill. It was ONE THOUSAND. My thumb was sore at the end from doing that omnislash-like attack repeatedly. Aaaaagh. Zeyanote escapes in a flash of darkness. You continue on, to a cliff overlooking-- is it the town? It probably is-- and cry out in dismay. I dunno, I didn't see much. Maybe it was destroyed looking. Or overrun by Heartless. Anyway. Axel shows up, and you're all rah! but he proceeds to tell you that by going around bashing Heartless with your keyblade, you're just playing right into the XIII's hands. It's just the way Zemnas planned it. (Zemnas is Fake Ansem AKA Zeyanote's XIII name, btw.)
Me: Oh, no. You didn't. Tell me you-- Square, you JERKS.
Yes, they totally did. Aajf;lsjdklf;jaslkd;f. I should have seen it coming. It's such a Square thing to do. But I was LULLED by the simplicity of KHI. Aghraaagh.
That's right, Axel tells you. The XIII want you to go around destroying Heartless with your keyblade, because they want the lost hearts. This whole time, you've been helping them.
Sora demands to know if Axel was the one who dragged off Kairi, and Axel says yeah, that's right. I'm Axel. What, you still don't remember me? Then Sykes appears and Axel says "Oh crap!" Sora then wants to know what happened to Riku, and one of them (*shrug*) says he should ask his precious Ou-sama.
Me: Well, that's ominous-sounding.
Axel scoots, which causes Sora great distress, and Mickey cries out and jumps through the dark gate after him. Sykes says don't worry, I'll deal with his eradication; Sora says he doesn't CARE about that, he just wants to see Kairi, and pleads to be taken to the dark world. Sykes asks if Sora wants to see her enough to beg; Sora gets down on his hands and knees and says "Please."
Sykes: Well, if you want to see her that much... you can't!
Sora: *jumps to his feet* That's horrible!
My order may or may not be messed up, including where Mickey skits (though that is definitely before Sykes tells Sora to beg), but Sora also asks about what Axel said and Sykes tells you that yes, it's true. When Sora destroys Heartless with his keyblade, the lost hearts fly into the sky and the XIII collect them so they can get into Kingdom Hearts. He summons Heartless and Sora doesn't know what to do, because he kills one and he can see the heart flying up to the sky and he's like oh god, they're right. Maleficent at this point materialises and is like, "Rar! MY Kingdom Hearts!" and summons some Heartless of her own. Sykes's response is to disappear his Heartless and summon Nobodies, which trounce the Heartless, and then summon his own Heartless again. Maleficent creates a wall of fire between the trio and Sykes (and his Heartless) and tells them to go. She's not doing this for you-- she still remembers what you did to her-- but she'll hold them off. However, Sora is frozen with indecision, especially when the Nobodies mob Maleficent and she dematerialises. The flame wall disappears a moment after and Sora-tachi are swamped by the endless Heartless. He doesn't know what to do, because he can't fight them, not now he's learned what happens, so all he can do is block and panic. Then you hear Maleficent's disembodied and rather disgusted voice saying that you can't be relied on to do anything for yourselves, honestly.
Cut to Leon and Cloud. There is a beam of light up into the sky and something big is obviously happening back where you were, and he's all frantically worried about Sora (somehow managing to both be recognisably Squall and have emotions at the same time), and Cloud tells him to stop being a moron; they'll have gotten out somehow, because they're strong. Sora was chosen by the keyblade; Cloud's a little jealous of that.
Cut to Sora-tachi in the gummi ship. Sora looks a bit down; "we're always being saved by other people." Flashback to last we saw them; they get dragged down into a dark gate into a place that is empty endless black. The world of darkness! Sora exclaims. You see someone dressed a la the XIII; he (or perhaps she) drops a white box and disappears. You open it. Inside there's an icypole and a photo of Pintz, Orett, Hyne and... Roxas.
Donald says the names of the first three, then wonders who the fourth person is.
Roxas, Sora says softly.
Donald: Do you know him?
Sora: No, I just... know that's who he is.
The icypole is the keyhole. You seal it and vamoose.
Back on the gummi ship, Donald wonders who left that box there. Sora says it was Riku. He doesn't know for sure, but he somehow gets that feeling.
Meanwhile, Olympus, the Pride Land, Halloween Town and Agrabah have all disappeared off the face of the worlds map.
Me: ... what.
Now each of the worlds still remaining, except Disney Castle and Twilight Town, has MULTIPLE KEYHOLES. Oh. My. GOD. In addition to this, a new sentence has appeared in the Port Royal and Land of Dragons journals-- "Peace should have been returned then."
Me: ... YOU JUST LIKE MELODRAMA, SQUARE. ADMIT IT.
And that? That explains why the other worlds are gone, because they all link through one or other of those two worlds. *disgruntled sigh*
Also, these continual plot twists and turns and general convoluted chaos are confusing me. Square has pulled out the big guns. It's like playing FF7 and trying to figure out whether or not Cloud is a clone. MY BRAIN, SHE HURTS.
[On an amusing sidenote, I mentioned to Ji that KHII had gone all FF7 on me.
Ji: What, you mean gay? Uh. Gayer than it already was?
Me: Gayer than usual, you-- haha. No. Well, yes, because Sephiroth and Cloud showed up started being all gay which totally added to the FF7 effect, but that wasn't actually what I meant.]
Frisked by the faeries
So to follow the usual pattern, I of course go to finish off various loose ends before going back to Mulan and PotC, which means picking up the treasure I missed in Hollow Bastion, playing the side quests, and playing through the ripped page I just picked up. There was a bit of a mishap here where I was trying to level up my Wisdom drive and there was a glitch where I just froze in my transformation mode and the battle continued on around me, the monsters unable to touch me. I thought it was amusing for a while, and then I got bored and reset, and it very decidedly ceased to be amusing when my disc wouldn't load anymore, just like the last time.
I think I've figured out why: if I leave it in when it freezes too long, I suspect the laser burns the disc. So I burned KHII Disc The Third, this time making sure NOT to be an impatient twit and burn it at 1x which wasn't as slow comparatively as it should have been, perhaps because I stopped my downloads etc. I'm determined this time if it freezes to just hit reset no matter what, but it hasn't frozen yet, so we shall see.
Anyway, the two Hollow Bastion sidequests involve the usual skateboarding run (Sora must have subsumed Roxas's l337 skillz, clearly) and finding the three treasure-hunting faeries again. (They're not actually called faeries, they just faerie-sized, so.) Found the faeries, who are all, "Hey, YOU! You're liars! Leon didn't have any treasure!" and you're all, *gulp*.
Yuna-tachi: So give us your treasure!
Sora: But we don't have any!
They then get into a circle and whisper things which you can occasionally overhear, and then Ryukku checks you all out.
Ryukku: Mm, as I thought...
Yuna: Give us all your items!
Sora: But--!
And they jerk you around a bit more before Pyne tells you they're not serious, and Yuna says that Leon told them all about you and that you're on a dangerous journey, so they're going to give you this, this being a new keyblade which isn't as good as the one I had equipped (or my second keyblades for Brave and Master forms, either) but is still nice to have. And means I've picked up all the treasure in Hollow Bastion. (Characters are maxed too-- Huey, Dewey, Louis, Scrooge, Donald, Sora, Goofy, Merlin, Pyne, Ryukku, Yuna, Leon, Aerith, Yuffie, Cid, Tifa, Cloud and Sephiroth.)
I actually forgot I was meaning to do the skateboard minigame so went to Merlin's house to complete the next page of Winnie the Pooh instead.
But before that, I will mention that I ran into Cloud in Ansem's study-- he says "Tell me if you run into a man with long silver hair and a long sword. His name is Sephiroth. He's my... darkness."
Aside from wondering why we have failed to in fact tell Cloud we ran into Sephiroth, I also wonder what was up with that pause. It's a bit sus if you ask me. HM.
(And on that note, Cloud must totally be avoiding Tifa, because she's in the town area and she still hasn't found him. Huh.)
The Adventures Of Somebody-From-Somewhere-San, Part Three!
The latest location in the 100 Acre Wood is Rabbit's house, which is also where Eeyore has set up his house. Eeyore's house gets knocked over, as per usual, this time by Pooh, who greets Eeyore with "Hello for the first time!" and if possible depresses Eeyore more. Pooh is out for honey as always and Piglet thinks maybe Pooh will remember if he's not hungry anymore. Eeyore says it's not going to work, but he'll show you to some honey he saw anyway. (He seems to be shaken about being forgotten.) We see Rabbit stacking pots of honey. He goes to get more, and we amble on in, unleashing the devastation that is Pooh upon the honey. Rabbit comes back with more honey and is obviously appalled-- "My honey... POOH!"
Pooh: Honey! I want more honey! Can I have more honey, Somebody-san? *takes Rabbit's pot*
Rabbit: *stunned* Somebody?
Sora apologises profusely and explains that it's their fault, because they led him here. Rather deflated, Rabbit says no, don't worry, Pooh is like a force of nature anyway. (Not literal translation there, but it gives the general gist.) He gives the honey to Pooh and says maybe Pooh is hungry and he'll remember after eating more.
Piglet: That's what I thought!
Eeyore: It'll never work.
Pooh eats the honey Rabbit gives him and is STILL hungry, so Rabbit sends us to get the honey that is hard to reach. We then play a minigame which involves sliding at high speed along a stone-littered path trying to pick up honey and not drop Pooh. At one stage you have to rescue Gopher, and there are a few times when you fall out of one page and into another, which is pretty cool, because the pages have actual passages from the Winnie The Pooh book on them.
After that, Pooh is STILL hungry, and STILL doesn't remember people. Rabbit gives up and gets very depressed; Pooh says something along the lines of "What's wrong, Rabbit?"
Seeing his friends depressed seems to jog his memory. Hm. Anyway, he remembers Eeyore, too, but still doesn't remember Sora. Surprise, surprise.
Once I perfect clear the honey slider game, we're done with 100 Acre Wood for now, so on to Mulan!
Srsly, Square, WHAT? My brain hurts so bad. ;;
You appear in the burned village and see one of the XIII. :O! you say, and move to chase after him when Mulan runs up and calls out your name. Sora tells her sorry, but you're kind of in a hurry trying to chase after that guy, but she says that she's chasing him too so on you go. Up the mountain we go, until we catch sight of him again and he summons hordes of Heartless down the slope like Shan Yu did. Sora then gets the dubious joy of fighting off the XIII and the Heartless at the same time, until the XIII guy runs away.
Special note should be taken of his weapon, which one should recognise from both KHI and CoM.
Yeah, I don't need to explain that, because as the guy runs off Sora stares after him with a confused, lost expression and says "... Riku?"
He doesn't know why, he just gets the feeling that it's Riku, which makes him want to catch up doubly so. He's disappeared off somewhere, though, and we've got more important things to worry about. Like, for example, the mega dragon-shaped Heartless making for the capital.
Haha, oops.
Cut to the throne room, where there is one of the XIII talking to Shang and the Emperor, telling them about the dragon thingo. He could be threatening the Emperor; we don't get the context, but this XIII did smack Shang out of the way to reach the Emperor.
Back we run to the Imperial Palace, of course being beset by Heartless repeatedly along the way, but the doors are shut tight. Note we haven't gone past here previously. Mulan has the bright idea of climbing up the support posts and dropping down, which was cooler in the movie because of the earlier reference but I'm getting the movie now for rewatching so THAT'S okay. In the palace now, there is one of the XIII standing in front of the doors to the throne room.
Sora: Riku, is that you?!
Donald and Goofy: Say WHAT? Why is Riku one of the XIII?
Sora: *ignores*
The XIII pulls back his hood, and oh, false alarm, it's this old scarred guy. Number 2, Sigbaal.
He summons a whole heap of... Heartless? Nobodies? Who remembers, by this point-- and we bash them up and Goofy and Donald question Sora about the Riku thing, reminding him that this would mean Riku was on the wrong side again, but Sora has no answers, he just thought he felt Riku. Mulan interrupts at this point-- she's worried about Shang and the Emperor-- so we run forth into the throne room. Shang and the Emperor are fine, but Mulan is all like "emergency! huge monster!" and Emperor says "Ah, it's just like that young man clothed in black said."
Sora: OMFG RIKU!
Goofy & Donald: ...................
But Sora has no time to press about this because BOOM! from outside, the boss has arrived and we run out to do battle! (Which Shang protests, obviously worried about Mulan, but she tells him to take care of the Emperor, she's with Sora and the others so she'll be fine.)
Once that is over, and nowhere near as easily as I just made out because it has a bazillion health points, its carcas almost falls on and crushes Mulan, but Shang runs out to shield her (AAAW <3) and it fades away, a heart flying up into the sky.
Then there are fireworks (Siobhan: *wonders if this implies that China has emergency fireworks on hand at all times just in case the capital is saved from a catastrophy*), we return to the throne room and the Emperor asks Sora what he wants in return for saving the capital (again). Goofy and Donald are all :D! but before they can say anything Sora bursts out "I want to know about the guy dressed in black!"
I personally wondered if they wouldn't have just told him anyway, but hey. XD
The Emperor tells Sora about how there's a power flowing through the kingdom-- empire? what is or was China?-- called the dragon pulse and ... god, I don't remember. The XIII guy said something about how if the people who became Heartless got their hands on this power it would be bad. Or something. The Jiminy journal is utterly useless and doesn't mention this at all. *grumpy* Shang imitates his voice and says something about how "I was going to sort this out but I don't need to hang around because those three will be here soon and I know they can deal with it." and says the young guy had no manners.
Sora: Had no manners? Omg! It IS Riku! He's okay! (I: *crack up* "he had no manners! it MUST be Riku!")
Goofy & Donald: Uh, sorry to burst your bubble but WHY IS HE ONE OF THE XIII?!
Sora: Who cares? He's okay! :D
Me: Aaaaaaaaaaaw. <3333
The Emperor then asks what Mulan wants and she surprises him (and Shang) by asking, very embarrassed, for a holiday for Shang. The Emperor is baffled by the fact he is surrounded by people who don't want things for themselves, but he says he can't do that because then he wouldn't have anyone to protect him and Mulan deflates. However, he goes on, instead I will offer you a position as one of my personal guards (which is what Shang appears to be) so you can be together.
And Shang and Mulan are super happy and hug each other and it's really sweet and Sora has to scrub his arm across his eyes because he's a total romantic, obviously. That's the end of Mulan-- for REAL, this time, with all the journal entries maxed out. *satisfied nod*
Kingdom Hearts II: *continues on in its wicked, threesome-advocating ways*
Back to Port Royal. Zoned out for large parts of this, heh. For some reason there are skeletons running around again, and we're like "okay wut". Elizabeth asks Jack for his help because Will has gone off to the Island of the Dead to check what's going on with the cursed coins and she wants to go after him. Not to save him, mind. He doesn't need saving, she says. Yeah, sure.
Well, she has to bribe Jack with some undecided reward to get him to agree, but it's back to Dead Land. We find Will's ship, The Intercepter, which has been attacked by monsters, and we go on board to check if Will is okay. He's exhausted from being attacked by the monsters, and says they're still around. Jack is all like "leave me out of this, yo" but when you go out on to the deck, there stands one of the XIII. He pulls back his hood-- blond guy, short cropped hair and a beard. Number 10, Rooksode, which means the only XIII we're missing from our character map now are 3 (whom we have the hooded form of, and is presumably Axel) and 13 (who there is no picture for at all yet and is-- obviously by this point-- going to be Riku, as the newest members are the larger numbers and he'd be the newest.)
Wait, hold it, why isn't there a number for Roxas?
Oh, whatever.
He's got the chest of cursed coins and Jack is like, well shit. You're about to attack but he invokes Parley and then while you're arguing with Jack about it he summons Heartless, which nick coins from the chest, and the Intercepter gets sunk with you on it. You end up washed up in the Ship Graveyard, and Jack has been cursed again. By the monsters which took the coins, rather than directly by the coins. Sora-tachi are not, and we conclude it's because different worlds, different rules. Sora has a moment of angst wondering when he can finally go home, but we get on with it. Four coins have been taken, and we have to beat up Heartless to time limits to get them back. (Jack knows how many because he's got a pirate's skills of observation.) Unfortunately you have to beat up zombie pirates before the coin thieving Heartless show, and that's included in the time limit, and to hurt them at all they have to be in the moonlight.
(On a sidenote, for some reason about 50% of the time when I use my Wisdom drive I turn into a Heartless instead. UM. What is UP with that? It's very inconvenient! You can't return until all the enemies are dead or you use up your drive metre, and all you can do is attack! Attack like a beserker, granted, but it's CREEPY. Oh well, I put that down to the creepiness of Port Royal in general at this stage.)
Once that's done, Jack is like, now let's GET the bastards, and Elizabeth says she thought he didn't want anything to do with it. Jack replies that he doesn't like being made to do what those guys want him to do, so we go back to Port Royal. Can't remember if we see Rooksode again, but the main zombie Heartless is there for the boss battle. Ditch the coins in the chest; Jack is still undead. Why? Because he was cursed by the monster, not the coins. We have to defeat the monster.
So then ensues a boss battle where it keeps stealing vast numbers of cursed coins from the chest and you have to get them back and dump them in the chest so you can hurt it. At one stage one of the coins pinged off somewhere really random and I couldn't find it for ages, which was very frustrating. Plus, it has megaloads of HP, just like all bosses seem to recently. Nevertheless, it died eventually, the day is saved, blah blah blah. Jack wants to know where the reward he was promised is.
Elizabeth: Uh... ABOUT that...
Jack: I want that sword the kid has!
Sora: *smirks and hands it over*
The Keyblade: *disappears and reappears in Sora's hand*
Jack: ... Aw, man. Well, you can keep it for now. Just until I come back for it.
And then he demands that Will and Elizabeth serve on Black Pearl as his loyal minions instead, and Elizabeth is like "yey cool!" and Will is like "wait WHAT?" and I am reminded again that KHII likes threesomes. XD
Goofy wonders if maybe Jack WILL be able to use the keyblade one day, because he and Sora are kind of alike. Sora and Jack say "As IF!" in tandem and everyone laughs at them. Then the Black Pearl sails off into the sunset, with Will and Elizabeth voicing over how the famous pirate Captain Jack Sparrow continued his travels on the Black Pearl, and that's PotC done for good, with the journal completed properly. Hooray!
Somebody-From-Somewhere-San, Part The Fourth!
There was a torn page in the second episode of Port Royal, and so it's back to the 100 Acre Wood. This time it's Kanga's house-- she and Roo have come up with a medicine that might help Pooh regain his memories. However, before we get the chance to try it, Tigger bounces through like a whirlwind and snatches it, ooh hohohooooo~! We chase after him to tell him that no, dude, you don't want that, it's medicine and it's for Pooh. Tigger is shocked to hear that Pooh doesn't remember him, and decides that if he bounces around Pooh will CLEARLY remember ore-sama. Bounce, bounce, bounce, how was that?
That looks like it would make one hungry, Pooh says, quite worried and obviously not remembering Tigger.
Tigger: :O!
But Tigger never gives up, so he decides you should all bounce together, and you get a minigame involving a trampoline and balloons and pressing the triangle button with the right timing. It's quite fun, once you get the hang of it.
However, afterwards, Pooh still doesn't remember Tigger. Tigger gets very depressed and says he's going to give up bouncing because it holds no meaning now (me: aaaaaw! *sniffle*) and starts to trudge away, but then Pooh says something-- I think along the lines of "what's wrong, Tigger?" or something about Tigger giving up bouncing-- but the important thing is he says Tigger's name and Tigger is super happy and it's all okay. Yay! Of course he doesn't remember Sora but we don't expect him to by this point.
However, at the end of the chapter/episode/page/whatev, Pooh has a dream which is kind of like an out of body experience of the end of the 100 Acre Wood quest in KHI, where they're all on the hill waving to Sora at night, and he's like "Who is that? Next time... I'll remember next time..."
With this, we've got all the characters cleared, and there are 2 torn pages left to go.
Yet Another Interlude
Since we're in Hollow Bastion anyway and I forgot on the last sweep through, I go in search of the skateboarding game again. Turns out you have to talk to Scrooge. Anyway, I cleared that, and because there were enemies hanging around as they are wont to do, I used them as a way to try levelling up my Wisdom form, which I did, meaning my Brave form is level 3, my Wisdom form is level 2, my Master form is still level 1 (*deflate*) and my summon level is level 2. If only it didn't take so long to refill my Drive gauge, this wouldn't take so damn long. Also, it would help if I actually knew how to get experience for my forms. It's a bit hit and miss. I try to use them and just hope, really. Some times it works, and sometimes it doesn't. (Also, I can't figure out how to use my summons properly. They're a little more complex this time.)
But back to me using my drive forms in Hollow Bastion: I used it about two or three times.
And one of those times I turned into a Heartless again WHAT. I thought that was just PotC! AIIEEE that is actually REALLY FREAKING CREEPY! And sudden! I suspect it must involve Roxas and his being a Nobody somehow, because it seems to have started since I went to the world of Darkness and saw that photo--
Wait, maybe it's because I went to the world of Darkness.
Uh.
Oh well, whatever, the point is sometimes I turn into a Heartless. And it's creepy. Clearly I need boppy Disney songs to make this better.
Unda za shiiiiii! (subarashii!)
Yes, by which I mean, back to Atlantica. At some point which I didn't notice (probably when I finished Port Royal again) I picked up a form of magic. It's called magune, which is short for magunetto, which is the Japanese rendering of magnet. God knows how it'll get translated once we get to the magura stage of things (fira, thundara, blizzara... magnera?) but that's what it is. Maybe it's a replacement for gravity. I can't say I've used it in battle-- I don't usually use any magic except cure, quite honestly, because drives and renkei (lit. "cooperation", they're duo attacks that use up all your MP and are kind of like a limit break, though not as much as drives are) are more fun-- but I believe the effect is to draw the enemy closer to you. If I wasn't so lazy it would be a very strategic kind of spell to use in boss battles where the boss flies, but I am that lazy, and also I'm generally strong enough to stand a bit of a thumping while waiting for them to come into my reach again. (Also, one wonders if it would even work on bosses.)
... Also, on a relevant side note, the manual only lists fire, thunder, blizzard and cure under magic. How odd. Maybe it's a spoiler thing. Eh.
But anyway, the point is magnet is the magic you need to get the statue of Eric. So we present ourselves once more in Atlantica and tell Flounder yes, all systems are go, and then we cut to Ariel's trove, with the statue of Eric smackbang in the middle.
Sora: He looks like a prince!
Ariel: He's a human prince?
Wow, was this a dumb idea.
So then Ariel breaks out into Part Of Your World-- a shortened version, but not the refrain-ish thing she sang to Eric on the beach. It's actually not that bad, it's just that some of the wording amuses me and the Japanese words don't quite fit the way they ought and Ariel's Japanese voice is, while still quite good, not as gorgeous as English Ariel's voice. So more singing means we get to dance in time again, which is a bit more complicated this time because the buttons change around.
After I cleared that, the game booted me out of Atlantica and told me I needed an S-level drive gauge. Huh wha? How many levels do I have to level up my drive forms for THAT? It's up to five at the moment, but...
Well, I went back in to clear Part Of Your World again for the minigame record, and while I was trying to find it (turns out every time you clear one of the musical scores it gets added to the green glowing orb where you played the first one) I ended up talking to Sebastian and getting roped into Under The Sea.
Yes, instead of Heartless, Atlantica is the magical world of sparkles and kittens (catfish?) and music and dancing! Hurrah! Although it does make me regret that they're not singing the original English versions. I'm a bit torn with Under The Sea, though, because Sora sings the "Darling, it's better down where it's wetter, take it from me!" lines and his Japanese voice is lovely, unlike his English voice. Also, some parts of it are unintentionally hilarious. Or they are to ME. Because it just sounds so funny that they keep 'darling' in English when the rest of the line is Japanese. Or the way the chorus goes "Unda za shii! (subarashii!)" which got stuck in my head all evening. *giggle* But it does throw me a lot to hear it in another language. It was partially because I was distracted trying to remember the English lyrics that I took several tries to clear this. XD Of course it IS just a lot harder-- the timing gauges are much faster, and you have to keep to a better standard to clear too.
What *I* want to know is, why was I booted after Part Of Your World? What does my drive gauge have to do anything? It didn't stop me moving on in the plot. O.o;
At the end of it, Ariel tells Sebastian she's not going to sing it and that she'll only participate in the musical if it's a song both humans and merpeople could enjoy. Sebastian points out that King Triton would never allow it, and Ariel says fine, I won't sing, and swims off in a huff, us in tow. Meanwhile Sebastian is worrying to himself about all the trouble he'll be in if King Triton finds out that Ariel is in love with a human.
Triton is, of course, right behind him. And not happy, Jan! Sebastian wisely makes a break for it. We cut to the surface, where Eric is walking around on the beach and Ariel is staring wistfully from the distance. She points him out to Sora, and then he leaves the beach, accidentally dropping a locket as he goes. Ariel notices this and swims towards the beach; the locket has been pulled into the waves and is stuck in between some rocks. We can't reach it without an upgrade to our magnet magic, so that means no more Atlantica until later notice.
Oh well. That means (after clearing Under The Sea again) it's back to the worlds map.
Impossible Minigames PAIN ME.
I went back to Twilight Town, cause I thought maybe I could wipe out those evil bees within 10 seconds this time with my explosion technique. It took a bit of strategy in addition to this technique, but after a while trying, yes, I managed to do so. Huzzah! However, I still can't perfect clear the posters (30s, 30 posters, that's a poster per second and I have to run between billboards! It's IMPOSSIBLE!) or the garbage. (9 bits of garbage, 5 hits to destroy them all. It takes three hits to destroy them, but you can knock them into each other. You can also shove them around by walking into them. It's time-consuming and horribly boring and I can never bring myself to more than one attempt at a time.)
Also, I still can't get that treasure chest. I have a feeling I maybe never will. I am depressed by this. Square, do you have ANY IDEA how horribly unfair it is to have a one-time-only location that early on?! I hadn't even noticed the Jiminy journal yet at that stage!
Then again, the Twilight Town story isn't finished yet, so MAYBE I can go back to Yen Sid's tower eventually. Wah.
I KNEW it'd come back to bite us.
Yes, obviously Jafar's lamp was just begging for him to come back and wreak havoc, so we get a shot of the short merchant guy cowering and genie!Jafar returning, Iago flying down the steps and freaking out... and then we flip forward in time, us landing in the merchant's shop which is now bedecked with gold and jewels and such.
Sora: Wow, you've had a good change in fortune. O.o
Merchant: Don't you say that! I ain't done nothin'! I'm honest, me! *looks shifty*
Me: ........................... *facepalm*
So the obvious conclusion to leap to is that he sold out to Jafar. Hm. Anyway, Aladdin and Abu come running in, Aladdin still dressed like a street rat (given the movie ended with him married to Jasmine and dressed like a prince, I thought we'd be seeing an improvement in his fortunes, but apparently not), and I'm not sure when Aladdin yelled catch him he meant Abu or the merchant. Either way, the merchant amscrayed.
Aladdin tells us that Jafar is back and both Agrabah and we are in danger, us having been the ones to seal him in the lamp in the first place. We're all very mistrustful of Iago, who is all panicky and says he knows where Jafar is, he'll tell us everything, really! Aladdin says Iago had better-- he'll only get one chance, and if he lies to us...
Iago tells us it's out in the desert, but there's a problem-- he points to a set of ruins in the distance enveloped in a hug sandstorm. We're all 'fuck, now what' but then Genie shows up and is like yay I will do anything to help Al ol' buddy ol' pal, A~l Al Al whaddaya need me for, just let me do it-- and Aladdin says okay, and Genie is like :D and then he sees what he has to do.
Genie: Oh, is THAT all. D: *waves hand boredly, sandstorm go poof!*
Everyone else: :O!
Genie: A~l, next time can't you call me for something harder?
We go off to the ruins on the magic carpet, which is interesting in battle because you need to use both analog sticks to move. We chase a watery Jafar around for a while (on that topic, they say his name so it sounds like "jaffa"! No, really, I couldn't stop laughing. Jafar just became junk food! XDDD) and then we have to do this thing involving switches and magic to open a door into this tower and fly back top speed because it starts counting down once you're done with the last switch. You run inside and Sora is all like "We trounce you now, Jafar!"
Silence.
Jafar is so totally not there. Aladdin and Sora go "RAH!" at Iago, who lied and now admits it (he's such a scaredy-cat, and Jafar is big and nasty) and tells us that actually Jafar is at the Palace. He's like forgive me please forgive me waaaah and Aladdin and Sora are all "SO no", and then Iago knocks a jar off a switch and we have to make a break for it on the carpet because everything is collapsing. This clearly has to happen at least once in Aladdin. *amused* The carpet moves mostly by itself, we just have to handle the left-right-not-whacking-into-stuff aspect and kill Heartless on our way through. (Which later becomes the last Agrabah minigame.)
Once we're back in Agrabah, we run towards the Palace, but on the way we find the merchant, who comes clean with us. Jafar tried to palm off a story about how he was the rightful Sultan and he'd been imprisoned by evil people, but like the merchant was gonna believe that load of crock, especially since Jafar wouldn't give him any treasure.
Us: .......... Right.
Sora: So Jafar DIDN'T give you the treasure?
Merchant: Oh, no, a man dressed in black did.
Us: . . . . . . .
Merchant: I'm sorry I lied but he said that if I told anyone the treasure was Jafar's Agrabah would be destroyed! And it's better that Jafar not have the treasure! I was just worried about the people of Agrabah, really!
Sora: ... And you BELIEVED that?
Merchant: Well, duh. I'd believe anything for this much treasure. (For once, I am not exaggerating humorously. He actually did say this.)
Us: *FACEPALM*
This whole time Iago has been flapping pointedly in the background and he's quite exhausted by the time we finally notice and remember we're supposed to be going to the Palace. So off we go, and find Jasmine chained to the Palace gates and Jafar monologuing on about how he's going to be the Sultan and how he'll marry Jasmine to make it look legit and how Aladdin is going to die screaming her name. Jasmine is looking pissed off during this tirade, but then she looks past him and brightens, calling Aladdin's name, and Jafar turns around to see us standing behind him.
The only somewhat abbreviated and mostly accurate follows!
Jafar: Oh, not YOU again. *tries to blast Aladdin*
Iago: Al! *flies in the way and gets a nasty electric shock, falling to the ground*
All: Iago!
Jafar: *goes genie*
Boss battle: *ensues. with only Sora, meaning no renkei, drives, or summons.*
Jafar: *has shitloads of health*
Despite this: *the battles is not in fact that terrible*
Jafar: *gets pwned*
Lamp: *disappears*
All: *rejoice!*
Genie: Yo! ... AL WHY DID YOU NOT CALL ME TO GET RID OF JAFAR. *sulk*
Donald: It's already over, yo.
Genie: *woobie face*
Aladdin: We still need you to help fix Agrabah, Genie.
Genie: *brightens* I can make it a hundred times better!
Aladdin: Uh... no thanks, just the way it was.
Genie: Oh, fine. Spoilsport. *fixes Agrabah*
Iago: *is alive, because this is still Disney, after all* Wow, he must be a really useful friend. *wistful*
Sora: Dude, being a friend is not about how useful you are. It's about being there for each other.
Genie: Is there anything else I can do, Al? Huh, huh? *to Sora* Have you guys seen my show yet? Call me any time you need help! *creates hyperactive Genie!fireworks*
Aladdin: Oh, that's right, have you found your friend yet, Sora?
Sora: *wilts* Not yet...
Aladdin: *clasps Sora's shoulder* Don't worry, I believe in you.
And that's where we end, with Genie fireworks and Aladdin's hand on Sora's shoulder. I'm mildly disturbed, actually-- I was expecting a conclusion to Aladdin/Jasmine, and instead I get Genie/Al and Aladdin/Sora. I don't WANT to go there! I'm happy with Aladdin/Jasmine! SQUARE THIS IS ALL *YOUR* FAULT. Clearly, they have the Midas touch... only for GAY. And I thought that was me, but it's worse because at least I'm doing it on purpose. Usually. But not right now! They make it so hard not to! Aiiya.
With that, Agrabah is finito, and a new episode opens up in Hollow Bastion. Only I suspect it'll involve Cloud and Sephiroth, and I've always been the kind of person who eats the vegetables first and saves my favourite food for last, so I haven't gone to it yet, despite having a new torn page from Winnie The Pooh, and decided to go to Halloween Town instead. Not that I'm comparing Halloween Town to vegetables, mind you. I adore Jack Skellington, and Sally, and Jack/Sally. But Sephiroth/Cloud is one of my major OTPs, much like Seishirou/Subaru. Also, I hadn't been to Halloween Town when it became available before and as I suspected there'd be two episodes, I thought it would make sense to go clear the first one now instead of having them occur really close together.
Which is a long winded way of saying "and then I went to Halloween Town", really. XD
Next time: ... And then, I went to Halloween Town. *grin*
Ooh, my blood-sugar was disgustingly high so I took some fast insulin in addition to my overnight insulin, but I probably should have eaten more at the same time because now I'm shaking. God I'm stupid. *goes to boost her sugars, and then play KHII, ignoring the fact that she's going to be forced out of bed for tradesmen in less than 8 hours and has work tomorrow night-- thereby reinforcing her last statement.*
... And Asian Studies STILL hasn't scheduled their class times, 2 weeks after the draft timetable went up. Sodding hell, they're lazy. What if I have a clash? O-week is in two weeks!
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no subject
Date: 2006-02-01 04:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 12:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-04 11:49 am (UTC)I'm sure you're not boring! Now I know who you are, I'd like to get to know you better. Yoroshiku ne!
no subject
Date: 2006-02-01 11:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-05 04:56 am (UTC)It's very fun! I'm up to the last boss now, though I have to run around clearing all these insanely hard requirements so I can get the special ending. I'm almost considering finishing it and just downloading the special ending, but the gamer in me is appalled at this suggestion. *woe*
no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 08:12 am (UTC)and yeah, boring assemblies...
and hot days... and the strangest thing is, that even though we can now sit inside, we aren't:P I don't know why either:P
ANYWAY!
aww! Yeah, I can sympathise about tradesmen sort of, I hated it when builders were always at our house in Japan.
I was trapped in my room for about 5 hours cos there were tradesmen just outside my room where I needed to get dressed O_o anyway! Hope they are done soon!!!
Can you eat lettuce or something? uuuh, though it doesn't sound like the most appetising thing in the world, or sugarless gum or something?
Well, I suppose not since u probably know the best!
Anyway! yeah, hug
Missed u heaps
no subject
Date: 2006-02-02 09:37 am (UTC)Okay, maybe that's not the best thing, but it feels like it when I remember all the boring assemblies from school. XD
I get very grumpy about tradesmen, so a lot of the time I just give up and ignore them. Which pains my parents greatly. I can kind of see their point but at the same time I really don't care if they see me in my night clothes. *sweatdrop*
I could eat lettuce, yeah. I can eat berries, though not too many at one time-- we often have strawberries around because of that, but we don't at the moment. Meats don't have carbs either so sometimes when I'm really hungry I pick at the chicken in the fridge, but insulin isn't as effective if you're not in the right weight zone so it's not good for me to eat meat too much outside of meals. *looks shifty*